I'll be leaving in a couple of weeks for my annual four-day training session. Everyone around me seems to think it will be a refreshing, relaxing, restful time for me.
Ha! I couldn't disagree more. Fore one thing, I am a nursing Mom, which means that I will be extremely uncomfortable the entire time I am there. I've never been a good "pumper," and it takes me a good hour just to extract four ounces for my son on a good day. That doesn't mean that there is only four ounces in there - it just means that my milk won't "let down" for the ingenious, yet annoying, piece of plastic yanking on me in a way-too-rhythmic manner. So, I'll pump for an hour, then still be miserable and uncomfortable and manage to leak during meetings. Ugh.
And forget sleep. Between being full of milk, meeting in a different time zone, being alone when I'm used to a gang of small children (who, I've been told, are referred to as "ankle biters" in Australia) exhausting me into a coma, and general insomnia, sleep is a foreign object for me on these trips.
Sure, it's great to see all of my colleagues. But it's just not very relaxing.
Since this is my fifth child, I've been through quite a few pumps. I always buy the expensive ones since I have always traveled on occasion for work. Still, they always manage to break on me. My first pump was a small Medela electric single. It served its purpose, and I pumped in dark rooms in the childcare facilities of my company's building. When traveling to my Salt Lake City office, I was placed in a dark, unfinished janitor's room, where I promptly spilled six ounces of breast milk on the concrete floor. When I had my third, I decided to invest in the Medela Pump in Style since I planned on taking him on all of my business trips with me for the first year. It was awkward to travel with since the motor was built into this huge pleather bag, so it counted as my carry-on. Still, it got the job done. By the time I weaned him, though, I was using Scotch tape to hold the valves together.
I was ready for a new pump with my fourth child. There was a new model out, which may have been a Playtex but whose name escapes me right now. It was heavily hyped before it was even released for sale, so I was raring to go once I saw it available on the Babies R Us website. It cost my Mom a pretty penny, and it lasted even less time than the previous pumps. I tried to look up the name on the Babies R Us website today but couldn't even find it, which is never a good sign.
Since Number Five is also my last biological child, I have decided to get the (much) less expensive Medela Swing single pump this time. It may take me twice as long to pump in the hotel, but at least I'll still be able to afford those flex payments for the laptop I ordered off of QVC that just came in the mail the other day. Let's just hope that the "authorized seller" I took a chance on at Amazon.com gets it to me on time, in spite of my decision to take advantage of the free standard shipping offer. Heck, I'm not worried - after all, "Sugar Ray" has a 97% satisfactory rating, right?
Princess just fell asleep in the high chair. I have no idea how, since Little Mister is throwing his toys all over the place and whining loudly. It's hard to tell if he's teething or not, since three out of four of my other boys didn't get their first tooth until they were 16 months old (which made nursing long-term much easier). My husband has decided that he's just hungry and is feeding him Spaghettios, which he promptly chews with his gums.
Watching him with the babies, I am suddenly comforted. After all, he will be home on vacation with the kids while I am away, so he and his mother will be tag-teaming with the kids. And heck, he gets up most nights with the babies anyway, so I'm fully confident in his abilities as a Dad to "twins."
Maybe I'll have a good time on my trip after all. If I could just find a baby to nurse while I'm out there...
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